Bardem, Almodóvar, Tosar, and other Spanish filmmakers urge Christopher Nolan to halt filming of 'The Odyssey' in the Sahara.

Christopher Nolan's ongoing shoot in the Sahara Desert for his next film, "The Odyssey," has encountered unexpected resistance. Beyond the harshness of filming in an inhospitable location, the FiSahara International Film Festival has orchestrated a pressure campaign to halt the production, supported by prestigious Spanish filmmakers.

In a statement, the festival criticized Nolan for choosing the city of Dakhla, "occupied by Morocco, in Western Sahara," as a location for part of the filming. It urged him to "break his silence" about why he chose this location and also criticized him for filming there "without the consent of the Sahrawi people."

The manifesto features the signatures of prestigious Spanish filmmakers such as Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Icíar Bollaín, Carolina Yuste, and Fernando Colomo. It also features the signature of musician Eliseo Parra, among many others.

However, it was in early June that the festival management openly asked the British director to "stop filming in Dakhla and stand in solidarity with the Sahrawi people who have been under military occupation for 50 years and are routinely imprisoned and tortured for their peaceful struggle for self-determination." The request was directed at both Nolan and two of the most recognizable faces in his cast: Matt Damon and Zendaya , who play Odysseus and Athena in this retelling of Homer's classic of the same name.

"Dakhla is not just a beautiful place with cinematic sand dunes. First and foremost, it is an occupied and militarized city whose indigenous Sahrawi population is subjected to brutal repression by the Moroccan occupation forces," the statement explains, accusing "Nolan and his team" of "contributing to the repression of the Sahrawi people."

The manifesto signed by the Spanish authorities invites the crew of "The Odyssey" to the next edition of FiSahara , "staying with a Sahrawi family, watching films in the Sahara Desert, and witnessing the reality of the Sahrawi people." They also demand that they "publicly acknowledge that they should not have filmed scenes in Dakhla."

They also call on the director of 'Interstellar,' 'Inception,' and 'The Dark Knight' to "engage directly with at-risk human rights defenders, filmmakers, and journalists who can give him a firsthand account of their situation" and to use his position in the industry "to shed light on the critical situation of Sahrawis under Moroccan occupation."

However, the Spanish government has officially recognized Morocco's proposed autonomy plan for Western Sahara as "the most serious, credible, and realistic basis" since Pedro Sánchez made this position official in 2022 through a letter to King Mohammed VI , implying that he denies political legitimacy over said territory to the Sahrawi people.